This disclosure relates to improvements in tuning a damper member for a target vibrational mode.
Damper members are known and used to attenuate vibrations that occur in machines, such as gas turbine engines, liquid rockets, automobiles and generally any machine where vibrations are undesired. A challenge, however, in designing such damper members relates to tuning an acoustic attenuation of the damper member to a target vibrational mode. Specifically, tuning the damper member to the target vibrational mode can enhance vibrational attenuation. However, in practice, closely tuning the damper member to a target vibrational mode has proven difficult. For example, one known type of composite damper member includes a porous metal foam that is made by solidifying the metal in the presence of a foaming agent. The metal foam is then impregnated with a resin and cured to form the final composite. In such a composite structure, there is only limited ability to tune the damper member through material selection.